Charged With Beating

A teen-ager who is awaiting trial in the Lake County jail on charges of raping a Eustis woman and killing her two daughters was arrested again on charges that he helped beat up another jailed youth.Alfonza Smalls, 15, of Eustis, was one of five teens charged with repeatedly punching and kicking Courtney Turner, 16, while he was in his cell Saturday afternoon.Smalls and another teen, Gregory Coleman, 17, of Leesburg, were booked Wednesday and each charged with one count of battery in a correctional facility.

A man has been charged with beating and stabbing a Cook County prosecutor who tried to intervene when he saw two men harassing a couple they thought was gay, authorities said. Edgar Diaz, 21, of the 5600 block of West Grand Avenue, is charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery, police said. He was arrested last week and identified by witnesses, police said. The prosecutor was on his way to meet a friend to fish along the lakefront around 7 p.m. Sept. 14 when he saw two people shouting at the couple and told them to stop, according to Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.

John Wayne Bobbitt, whose wife cut off his penis last year, has been formally charged with beating his fiancee, police said Tuesday. Bobbitt, who was arrested Friday after Kristina Elliott, complained to police that he had roughed her up, was charged late Monday with one misdemeanor count of domestic battery, said Lieutenant Carl Fruge, a Las Vegas police spokesman. Although the two have reconciled and Elliott, 21, does not want to press charges, Fruge said prosecutors would go ahead with the case anyway.

A 91-year-old University of Florida professor emeritus is accused of beating his wife with a broom during an argument about dinner, the Gainesville Sun is reporting. Michel K. Ochi, of the Department of Coastal and Oceanic Engineering at UF, was charged with aggravated assault after deputies found him standing over his wife with a broom, the newspaper reported. Deputies said the woman was crouching beneath him in the fetal position and had been kicked in the head. Read the full report at Gainesville.com

FAIRMONT, W.Va. - Two women who took in a homeless man are accused of beating him and scalding him with water. Juanita Allen, 42, and Shirley Cecil, 52, were arrested Monday on charges of kidnapping and malicious wounding. Both were in jail Tuesday in lieu of $150,000 bail each. Their alleged victim, Robert Brenneman, was hospitalized in fair condition. Brenneman, 32, had previously lived in the women's house and returned asking to move back in six weeks ago, police said. The women finally dumped him on a street, where a passerby found him.

A Seminole County woman was charged Tuesday with beating her 11-year-old son with a broomstick until it broke and then burning him.Lora Dean Bussey, 29, of Midway, was charged with aggravated child abuse in the Feb. 12 incident at her home at 2260 Water St. She was being held in the county jail on $5,000 bail.The boy was ordered to remove most of his clothes and then was beaten with a broomstick, sheriff's Investigator Dan Prast said in arrest reports. Whenthe stick broke, the woman picked up another one and beat the boy two or three more times, Prast said.

A man accused of beating his 60-year-old wife to death with two banjos was charged with murder Wednesday. Edward T. Benson, 63, was arrested early Wednesday when Miami County deputy sheriffs called to the couple's home found his wife, Katie M. Benson, with severe head injuries, Deputy Charles Price said. The fatal beating ''was inflicted by a banjo that was completely destroyed, and a second banjo was picked up and used also,'' Price said.

Three St. Cloud men charged under the state's hate-crime law plan to plead guilty to a lesser charge later this week rather than face trial.The St. Cloud men were charged last spring with beating a Hispanic man after taunting him and a black man at a Kissimmee convenience store with the words ''nigger'' and ''spic'' and other racial and ethnic slurs.A fight broke out when Ruben Perez, the Hispanic man, responded to the taunts by calling the St. Cloud men ''rednecks,'' court records show.Or, as defense lawyers described it, ''One or more of the defendants invited the Hispanic gentleman outside to settle the matter in the classic macho tradition: a fight.

A woman who was attacked and raped on Christmas sought help at an Orange County fire station. The victim arrived at the Fire Station around 1 a.m. Christmas Day after her boyfriend of three months, Jorge Pereira, allegedly beat her and raped her for more than an hour, according to Orlando police records. The woman was badly bruised on her face and body when firefighters found her. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center for treatment. The Orlando Sentinel is not identifying the woman because she is the victim of a sexually motivated attack.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors may seek another indictment against a 12-year-old Jacksonville boy charged with beating his 2-year-old brother to death earlier this year. State attorney said Monday the other case accuses Christian Fernandez' of allegedly assaulting another half-brother, who was 5 at the time of the alleged incident. Evidence in that case is expected to go to a grand jury Thursday. The Florida Times-Union reports Fernandez appeared in court briefly Monday.

Two Orange County teens accused of attacking and raping a woman in an apartment complex parking lot last weekend are behind bars. Demarco Rollins, 19 and Victor Jones, 18, are charged with sexual battery and sexual battery with a deadly weapon in connection to the attack in Pine Hills. The victim told deputies she was walking to her apartment at the Royal Place Apartments early Saturday when she was approached by two men who offered her Xanax and asked her to go with them to a hotel room, according to an arrest affidavit.

Two sisters were arrested Monday and a third may also be sought on charges that they beat up and robbed their father, who they accused of taking needed money from their mother's bank account and gambling it away, according to an Ocala.com report. According to the report, Vickie Dennis Dempsey, 48, and Trenieshia Juanique Farmer, 28, were charged with grand theft auto, battery and robbery by sudden snatching in connection with the beating incident, which police say took place on Monday at a hospital where their mother was a patient.

A Volusia County man who told deputy sheriffs he caught a man beating his fiancé's dog and then fought with the man is accused of being the one who hurt the dog. He also faces a charge of making a false police report. Richard Travers, 21, called deputies to a home in the 1400 block of General Macarthur Avenue near Daytona Beach last week to report abuse to Dixie, an adult female pit bull and Labrador mix, Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. Travers said he heard the dog whimpering and found a man in the back yard beating her, Davidson said.

The owner of a Leesburg pub insists a man who is accused of severely beating a drunken patron outside the pub was not one of his employees — even though police say he was. "He's not an employee," said Steve Angrignon, owner of Steve's Redhouse Restaurant and Pub. "Our bouncers do not beat up people." Paul Lorenzo Cooper of Leesburg was arrested Jan. 5 and charged with attempted murder after police found a man "in a pool of blood" along U.S. Highway 441 in Leesburg. In its report detailing the arrest of Cooper, 27, Leesburg Police identified him as pub employee.

CHICAGO -- The mother of a 5-year-old Illinois girl has been charged with beating the child to death, authorities announced Sunday. Mila Petrov, 29, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in what Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart called the most horrific case of child abuse he had ever seen. At a news conference announcing the charges Sunday, Dart outlined three years of abuse suffered by Melanie Beltran, including being routinely tied up, struck repeatedly, burned with cigarettes, and being forced to eat hot peppers and drink out of the toilet.